News of the Day (February 16)

A throwaway line that must be challenged: Harlan Ullman, a Washington Times columnist, includes a throwaway line in his column about Osama bin Laden that notes his supposed calls for “the end of U.S. support in the oppression of Muslims by Russian, Chinese, Indian and other governments.” As the author of a book on Communist China and terrorism, yours truly would have quite a bit to say about bin Laden’s demand for an end to Communist China’s persecution of Muslims. There’s only one small problem: contrary to the conventional wisdom – encouraged in no small part by the Communists in their desperate attempt to tie any dissident of Muslim faith to bin Laden: Osama bin Laden has never criticized Communist China for its treatment of Muslims.

In the interests of full disclosure: I have a number of friends in the largest community of Communist-persecuted Muslims, known as the Uighurs. Many of them are in the East Turkestan government-in-exile. However, this is more important than my friendships. The more people believe Communist China’s lies about battling Islamic terrorism, the less they pay attention to the Communists’ ties to real Islamic terrorists – the mullahs in Iran, Saddam Hussein, Syria (International News), even the Taliban and al Qaeda itself. Thus, as we deal with the “front-line” threats such as bin Laden, Hussein, etc., it is imperative that we also deal with the Communist regime. That requires facing and learning the truth about the regime and its ties to terror. Ullman’s throwaway line obscures that truth, and thus it cannot go unchallenged.

FBI Counterspy head asks for Wall Street help against Communist spies: FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence David Szady made “a rare public appearance Thursday to ask American business to help stop the theft of U.S. business and technology secrets” (CNN). First and foremost on his mind was Communist China’s use of “students, delegations, researchers, visitors ... and false-front companies” for espionage. A fellow senior FBI official (who was not named) “was more blunt. ‘The Chinese are stealing us blind,’ he said. ‘The 10-year technological advantage we had is vanishing.’” Sdazy put the number of Communist front companies at “about 3,000.”

On the EU arms embargo: Helle Dale, Washington Times, notes the danger of the European Union’s plan to lift its arms embargo with Communist China, and includes a reminder of how the French government is more interested in “the Euro-Chinese strategic partnership” than its fifty-plus year American ally.

National Review Online on Stalinist North Korea: William F. Buckley’s column is terrible; Jonah Goldberg’s suggestion that Japan should become a nuclear power, while a defensible policy, doesn’t quite deal with the problem. Both are silent on liberation.

From the mouths of babes: An elementary school in Taesung, a South Korean town right at the demilitarized zone “in full view of impoverished North Koreans just meters away” (BBC), graduated two students. One of them, 13-year-old Kim Na-young, had this to say: “I never want to go to North Korea. I can see them farming with ox ploughing the fields. It looks very primitive.” Now if she can next be assigned this . . .